Taipei, Dec. 7 (CNA) Taiwan hopes to take an initial step toward signing a Trade Enhancement Measures (TEM) deal with the European Union (EU) and secure more visa-exemptions in the region next year, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official in charge of European affairs said Tuesday.
Negotiating TEM and pushing for visa waivers from 24 European countries or territories were the priorities on the country's European affairs agenda for 2011, James Lee, director-general of the ministry's Department of European Affairs, said at a regular press briefing.
Taiwan already secured a breakthrough in Europe on Nov. 25 when the Council of the European Union approved visa exemptions for Taiwanese citizens in 35 European countries, including the 25 in the Schengen Area. The new visa-waivers will take effect in January 2011.
Lee said Taiwan will now turn to six Balkan countries -- Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia -- and 18 British and French overseas territories, such as Tahiti in French Polynesia, to push for visa exemptions.
As for the Trade Enhancement Measures, Lee said negotiating them was a natural priority after Taiwan signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China in June, because the EU is Taiwan's fourth largest trade partner.
"We would like to take the first step of a feasibility study (for a TEM) next year. After that a joint study," Lee said.
The European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (ECCT) has actively urged the EU to initiate talks with Taiwan on the trade liberalization measures, according to Lee.
Taiwan's government has been in regular contact with the EU on the issue and has advocated a "block-building" approach to lowering Taiwan-EU trade barriers if a package deal were not plausible, he said.
An inter-agency task force consisting of the MOFA and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) has been established to work on Taiwan-EU trade liberalization issues, he added.
"We think that more urgent issues, such as investment, tariffs and standards, could be negotiated in separate agreements to benefit Taiwanese and European businesses, " he said.
Lee was not optimistic that negotiations on the issues could begin immediately, however, because the EU is engaged in free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with South Korea, India and Brazil, and he was not sure the EU would have other teams to work with Taiwan on the TEM.
That is why the possibility of doing separate and then joint feasibility studies were more realistic goals in 2011, Lee said.
Looking back at 2010, Lee listed the passage of visa exemptions in the Schengen Area as one of Taiwan's biggest accomplishments last year. Taiwan also signed a new aviation agreement with the United Kingdom and a double taxation avoidance agreement with Hungary. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls